Thursday, May 21, 2009

Home from the hospital!

I have been writing this for a few days (or weeks now lol). Obviously my time is a little consumed.

Alexandria and I have come home from the hospital. We are both doing well. My little girl is amazing, perfect. She was born on April 1st 2009 at 2:44 pm, weighing 7 lbs and 15 oz, and is 20 inches long.
Labor was not too terrible. We started having contractions at Nana B's house on Tuesday evening. Around 7pm I started counting them and they were about 4 to 5 minutes apart. After 30 - 45 minutes of that, Natalie came out from taking care of her boys and told me, "Kristin, your going to hate me. My water just broke." lol So she got to go to the hospital while I stayed at Nana B's house and kept counting contractions until 9 pm. Shortly after 9, Lisa got there to take me to Chandler Regional.
So we get to the hospital, pretty much they take me back right away, take my vitals, then send me to the triage area to monitor my contractions. Spent maybe an hour and a half there. Then I got sent home with a sleeping pill cause my contractions were not long enough. Even though they were 4-5 minutes apart. I slept maybe 2 hours max, tried wasting time for a while, then around 5 or 6 I made Lisa take me back to the hospital.
This time when I get there, they took me to the triage area, checked me, then got working on admitting me. My contractions were still 4-5 minutes apart but this time my contractions were lasting long enough. Just sat around in my bed, working through those, talking to Lisa, and Dawn got there too. Around 9:30 I got my epidural. That sucked. They tried a million times to get that gigantic needle in my back while I am supposed to be sitting still, hunched over having contractions. Lisa Almost passed out, along with one of my nurses.
Once that Epidural kicked in, I was fine! Back to laughing and chatting. Rachael showed up a little later. Even though I was not supposed to eat anything, so you don't get nauseous and throw up, Dawn fed me a nutri-grain bar. I was so thankful. I was starving then. I was starving after I had Alexandria too. Imagine how much worse that would have been if I had nothing.
Around 1:30 or 2 pm my water breaks. Which is the weirdest thing ever by the way. Did I mention by this time my epidural was wearing off, or basically it was gone. I was definitely feeling contractions again. Suck. So by 2pm we start pushing. I won't quite go into detail here, but 44 minutes later, at 2:44pm my little girl had arrived. She was beautiful. (Still is.) I got to hold her for a minute, but I don't really remember it because of all the other things going on in the room. So about an hour and a half later, after the shaking from shock was done, after the nurse finally gave me something for pain, and after all the stitching from the birth was done, I finally got to hold Alexandria for a while. She was the prettiest little thing I had ever seen. I was even crying cause I was so happy for her to finally be here. Just our first real time together, without people snatching her off again, she was perfect. perfect shaped head, perfect face, ten toes and fingers, wide open eyes. She has been curious from day one.
I didn't really have visitors that night because I was pooped. I couldn't believe how exhausted I was. We spent some time in the hospital getting checked out, getting to know each other and learning how to take care of my newborn. Then Friday the we went home.
It has been great ever since. I love my little girl so much, I wouldn't change a thing about her. She is so funny and adorable I can not wait to see what she is like when she gets older. For now though, I will savor and enjoy this time, while she is still so little. Let me tell you though, she is growing so fast, I can not believe how big she is getting.

Sorry it took so long to get this up. Some of you definitely know how busy you can be as a new mother.